Sonangol suspends all asset sale talks

Sonangol’s new chief executive Isabel Dos Santos has halted all talks related to the sale of the firm’s assets, a company statement said. According to the same statement, Dos Santos has stripped its internal legal department of most of its powers.

Dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s President dos Santos, was named head of Sonangol last month. The billionaire business woman was given orders to improve the efficiency of the struggling state owned oil firm. Sonangol is integral to Angola’s economy.

The statement, which was posted on Sonangol’s website following a board meeting at the end of June, said: “All processes of evaluation, negotiation and sale of any assets” had been suspended with “immediate effect.”

No further details were given.

Sonangol suspends all asset sale talks

In a separate message, Sonangol said the board had removed the legal department’s mandate to handle anything other than disciplinary matters. Again, this statement provided no more clarity.